Garden again

Is October monsoon season on the Island?

Saturday 1st November and Sunday 2nd November, 2014.

We had 11.69 inches (297mm) of rain during October - according to my little rain gauge which may not be accurate.  I don't know how this ranks in the record book yet - but there should be an overview of the month's weather on the local newspaper website next week.  According to World Weather Online, October is usually the wettest month of the year in Ramsey and during the period 2000 to 2012 an average of 119.7mm fell.  So last month more than made up for our dry September.

The sun was shining on Saturday morning and I went outside with my camera to record this unusual event.  I was going to take one photo of the back garden but ended up taking forty-nine.  This is the one that I intended taking . . . of the south west corner of the back garden with the edge of the plantation in the background.  The sycamores and hawthorns have lost all their leaves but the larches behind the summerhouse still have a few golden needles.

We have a mixture of old male and female holly trees on the bank below the forestry fence.  It looks as though there will be plenty of berries this winter but the blackbirds will probably eat most of them before Christmas.

Turning towards the north west, I could see the top branches of the oaks in the plantation behind the row of hollies.  The oaks still have some leaves which will blow down into our ditch  and join the philadelphus and viburnum leaves which haven't fallen yet.   I anticipate at least a couple more sessions of leaf clearing.

I still have sad moments thinking about our beautiful big silver birch which blew down in a winter gale years ago.   But I have a replacement.  At the north end of the path behind the house is a young birch.  It came up from seed and Tim moved it to this  good sunny position near the ditch a few years ago.

Toadstools seem to like growing under birches.  We used to have red fly agaric toadstools under the big birch but they disappeared when the tree died.   The little birch is hosting a crop of small copper coloured toadstools for the first time this year.

Upstream from the birch is a tiny waterfall that we constructed to stop the water from washing away the soil when it splashes down the bank.

And below the waterfall the ditch is already filling up with leaves from the viburnum.  I am not sure what type of viburnum it is as it was already in the garden when we moved here.  It has white flowers which look rather like the v. trilobum or v. opulus.

I walked across to the back garden to take a zoom photo of a sprig of flowers on the Cécile Brunner rose which sprawls over the summerhouse.  The warmer weather must have suited it because it has been producing a flower or two ever since summer.  It is the first time that it has continued to flower after the main flush.

Then I saw a blackbird eating berries on the hawthorn.  The bright background made the bird appear like a silhouette . . .

. . . but a bit of adjustment on the computer brought out the details.

Then I headed down to the front garden.  On the way I passed the nerine which I planted in the rose terrace.  They have managed to survive in spite of the wet and windy conditions.

At the back of the bed is an unidentified rose which has lived in the garden for longer than we have.  It had to be moved when the new garage was built and the drive was widened.  It doesn't flower prolifically but we enjoy the occasional dark orange bloom.

The front lawn is littered with beech pods again.  Most of the leaves blow away but the soft spikes on the little pods are almost like velcro and they cling to the grass.  I shouldn't complain so much.  It could be worse.  At least the pods are light.  I have been reading a gardening blog by a proper gardener in Cheshire.  He has a horse chestnut in his garden and says that he has thought of wearing a hard hat when he works under the tree in autumn.  A direct hit from a conker can be quite painful.

This is a view of the front garden that I usually photograph in spring  when the wisteria and clematis are flowering or in summer when the poppies are at their best.  I am surprised that the creepers are still covered with leaves.  I am sure that more have fallen by the beginning of November in previous years.  The flowering cherries still have most of their leaves too - so falling leaves will be with us for a few more weeks.

The usual advice is to prune mophead hydrangeas in spring because they are not as hardy as the lacecaps and the old flowers provide a bit of protection from frost.  But most of my mopheads are in shady positions and tend to flop.  Unless the weight of the flowers is removed the stems become distorted - so I prune them before winter.  The only exception is this one in front of the house.  It gets more sun . . .  and provides a good perch for the robin.

I am gradually working my way through the autumn tasks.  The wildflower bank near the summerhouse has been trimmed, the buddleias have been pruned and the lacecap hydrangeas by the garage were pruned this week.  They are looking rather scrawny.

Across the drive, near the turning circle, is another viburnum - one that I bought - a winter flowering Viburnum bodnantense.  

It is supposed to flower throughout winter.  These early flowers look a bit sad but they have a pleasant fragrance.

After my tour of the garden, I returned to the house.  From the chair by my computer, I have a good view of the Cordyline australis (Manx palm) near the big beech tree.  The huge bunches of white flowers have been followed by little white berries which are attracting almost as many birds as the peanut feeders behind the kitchen.  I have seen robins, blackbirds, thrushes, chaffinches and various tits enjoying the berries.  I was getting frustrated because I hadn't managed to get a photograph of any of them.  Every time I emerged from the front door with a camera they disappeared like magic.  Finally, after hanging out of the window for about ten minutes, I managed to get a quick snap of an obliging robin.

I am still checking the back window for another glimpse of a male blackcap.  I saw one yesterday in the little apple tree.  I thought at first that it must be a great tit but it didn't look right so I fetched the binoculars.  It was definitely a blackcap and it was feasting on an apple.  It is the first time that I have  seen one in the garden so late in the year.  They usually only visit us in summer when the raspberries are ripe.  I was too late to get a photograph of the bird.  It left while I was fetching my camera - so I just took a photo of his lunch instead!

And finally, after all the sunrise photos, here is one taken at sunset on Sunday evening.  It must have been spectacular watching the sun set from Peel and Kirk Michael on the west coast this evening.  We face east so we only get the reflected light from the clouds to the west of the Island.   I went up to the top of the garden to get a better view.  The colours were already fading but the half moon was rising over North Barrule.